


In Shadow or in Light

by maryfic



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 10:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1425511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryfic/pseuds/maryfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willow always knew something was missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Shadow or in Light

**Author's Note:**

> A holiday gift ficlet for rua1412 on LJ in 2008. 
> 
> Prompt: Willow/Angel, Angel goes to visit her when Tara dies. England or Sunnydale.

Finally, she could be alone. Six weeks in England, relearning how to 'just be Willow', and the once again redhead was simply feeling the brunt of raw grief for her lover without the embalming layer of magic to keep the pain away.   
  
The first two, she didn't come out of her room, and ate little and rarely until the Coven threatened to put her in the hospital on tubes. Then she ate enough to keep her alive, and they were satisfied. For the moment.   
  
A month after she tried to end the world, they let her go outside with supervision of the Giles kind.   
  
And now, six weeks to the day since Giles had bundled her in during the dark of night, she sat at her open window and wished. For what, Willow couldn't have told you, but there was a longing in her heart and a raw, aching wound in her soul for something unnamed.   
  
A spray of pebbles hit the side of the window frame and she looked down, confused. It was three in the morning, nearly.   
  
***  
  
Angel had watched her for almost thirty minutes before getting her attention, because to watch her, to sketch her even in his mind, was like trying to capture the subtle nuances between shadow and light, the interplay over her now thin features, and how the shadows, both real and imagined, chased each other over her drawn and yet somehow relieved face.   
  
But after his solitary contemplation and having gone through toils untold and hardships unnumbered, he was finally here. To give her what she needed, even if she didn't know it.   
  
***  
  
Willow blinked a few times, slowly, but before she could say anything, Angel was up the side of the cottage and on the roof outside her window.   
  
"Hey."   
  
"Hey."   
  
"I heard."   
  
"I tried to end the world."   
  
"Me, too."   
  
Willow turned and invited him in, though Giles had likely already done it. She stood with her back to him for a moment, and she started to shake.   
  
He could smell the salt of her tears and her grief and anguish was palpable, but he pushed across the room to wrap truly understanding arms around her, and Angel whispered, low, but heard even over the sobs.   
  
"In shadow, or in light."   
  
And Willow knew what she'd been missing all along.   
  
A friend.   
  
  



End file.
